About the Image

 
Meg Asaro
I love this ad for a couple of reasons.  #1, it captures a great moment;  #2, the image lovingly communicates the product Ariel Sensitive and #3, it beautifully targets its core audience: women.  With that said, a new dad flipping through the magazine section of the Sunday Times in Great Britain (where this image was found) would also be attracted to the image as it captures the special bond between father and child.

Seeing a man and a baby is like seeing two puppies playfully wrestling or a kitten yawning.  It is a real ahhhh moment.  What a great way to illustrate ‘sensitive’ to consumers.  As a detergent company, it benefits Ariel to ‘own’ the idea and feel of sensitive.

Today, the roles between men and women are becoming more blurry as women’s salaries increase and men start requesting considerations like paternity leave. In advertising, men are now portrayed as sensitive and loving without it threatening their masculinity.  This shift reflects the census figures that tell us one in four dads take their children to pre-school while their income-earning wife works.  According to Parenting magazine, the amount of time the average dad spends in the US on childcare has increased 100% in the last 20 years, from 3.5 hours to 7 hours a week.

Today’s American fathers are mainly members of Generation X.  Latchkey kids in their youth, many were raised either with an absentee working father or a single divorced mother.  They don’t want to do the same to their kids.  This may help explain the growing popularity of sensitive men in advertising.

We talk about men and fathers in more depth in our latest Spark*y.  Please contact us for more information.

Karen D’Silva
At Spark, we see our job as studying the marketplace and turning our research into a useful application for image producers.  Our analysis originates from many different forms, visual advertisements being an important source.  When dissecting an ad, there are also many interesting directions to take note of that can aid either your future visual aesthetics or provide valuable production details.

Let’s take a closer look at the production decisions contributing to this photo.  First of all, I can’t help but wonder about the Dad’s ethnic background.  Our Dad has a bit of a “multiculti” look.  Of course we only get a side profile, so it’s difficult to pin point exactly where he’s from (definitely NOT a coincidence).  When it comes to stock photography, you can increase the salability of your image by incorporating a multiculti look.  This Ariel ad is from the UK, but the image could easily appeal to the American Latino market.

How about Dad’s age?  Again the way the model is captured, makes him a bit mysterious.  I would venture to say he’s probably in his 30s and not the young 20 something Dad traditionally used in the aspirational world of advertising.  This is actually quite a statement contributing to how we define the look of family in 2007.   Today’s family is mostly  made up of a Gen X Mom and Dad.  What Gen X information has Ariel applied to this image in order to make the story believable, therefore appealing to the targeted consumer?  We know that Gen Xers tend to start families in their 30s because they are too busy with their careers in their 20s.  We also know that Dads take on a more equal role when it comes to their kids.  Gen X has also embraced the whole “green” notion.  It’s a subtle detail, but someone decided to use an image of a Dad sitting in a field, rather than their living room carpet.  The field location makes everything seem a little more natural.

Without digging too deep, we’ve just learned how to cast today’s Dad, what drives are important to Gen X, and what sort of location would pull the story together.  Being a smart image producer is about giving a competitive edge to your images.  Taking the time to understand the marketplace and apply the useful details to your images, only makes your images more salable because they speak the language of today’s marketers. 


----

Related Stories:

Visual case study: Burton travel bags (June 8, 2007)
Visual case study: Sony Vaio 'like.no.other' campaign (May 4, 2007)
Visual case study: State Farm microsite NowWhat.com (April 3, 2007)
Visual case study: Samsung Black Carbon Ultra Edition mobile phone (March 6, 2007)
Visual case study: Sea Island Resorts (February 6, 2007)
Visual case study: Microsoft Zune campaign (January 4, 2007)
Visual case study: California Closets (December 1, 2006)

Meg Asaro & Karen D’Silva are the Principals of Spark Visual Research. For more information about the authors visit the bios for Meg Asaro, Karen D’Silva, or www.sparkvisualresearch.com. D’Silva and Asaro also publish their own newsletter for professional photographers seeking highly applicable market research presented specifically for use in conceptual planning for commercial photography productions.